Pounding memory lane with artillery...

I started the process of discarding old stuff yesterday, and am continuing today.

Among the items I've consigned to waste: translations done ten and more years ago and various articles on programming saved while working for Borland 15 years ago.

There's still a lot of junk left, though, as I am nowhere near finished.

Cheers...

Passport's back...

Some time ago, I sent my passport off (a) to get some additional pages attached to the thing, as the normal set was accumulating endorsements of various kinds at an alarming rate, and (b) to renew my visa for Russia. I got the thing back late the past week, and only happened to notice it among the rest of the paperwork at the store.

I was debating whether the Passport Office was actually going to add pages or simply issue me a new passport, with all the biometric goodies and the RFID chip. The smart money said no, as I still have about 7 years left to go before my book expires; on the other hand, considering how much was being paid to add pages, and how enthusiastic folks sound about fielding the new, high-tech passports, they might as well have issued a new one.

I got my old book back, with a 24-page supplement incorporated between the last page and the back cover, so now I'm good to go for quite a number of additional trips.

My visa for Russia, for some reason, was not issued for a full year, but some fraction of that period. I suspect it has to do with the fact that I got my free-of-AIDS test last October, and that after a certain grace period, the end date of any visa application made with said free-of-AIDS certificate is fixed at one year plus the grace period. But that's only my guess.

I got the go-ahead to purchase airline tickets for the April job, which I've done and about which I've ininformed my client. There's a pile of documents to review for that job and a pile of terminology to come up to speed in. It should go well.

Galina's back from the store and napping in the next room. I packed up four boxes of books and went through a bunch of papers. I also found the install disks for Arabesque's Ecco PIM, and tried installing them just to see if they still work. I seem to recall Ecco was a very popular program back about 10-12 years ago, but like a lot of programs with an enthusiastic following, it was bought by someone (NetManage?) and quietly taken out back of the bit barn and put down.

(Actually, there's a tale there: you can actually still download a functional version of Ecco, but it's unsupported.)

Back to rummaging.

Cheers...

Passing all understanding, in the fast lane...

In a welcome change from the norm, Make is featuring an article on how to make an Altoids case out of an old iPod Shuffle. I love the irony, but don't need an Altoids case that badly.

While surfing the tube I was again struck by two aspects of the viewing experience that finally have made it to a LiveJournal post:

(1) Can someone explain how it is that horror films make up a significant part of the programming on the SciFi Channel? It's bad enough having that stuff around near the end of October, and I suppose there's nothing to be done about the occasional offering in the horror genre, but lately, it seems to be a fundamental staple of the programming.

(2) Can someone explain what kind of mental gymnastics one goes through to justify reporting on the Natalee Holloway affair on Entertainment Tonight? Sure, ET and similar shows are basically video versions of the supermarket tabloids, but what possible connection could such shows have to the tragic death of a young woman who - as I understand it - has nothing to do with the entertainment industry? I mean, compared to this, having horror films show up in the SciFi Channel programming schedule seems normal.

BTW, the result of today's cleaning spree is clear: I need more shelf space in my office.

Also, dedicating a device (i.e., a USB drive) as a TrueCrypt volume is maybe not so good an idea. Any attempt to access the drive (say, by clicking it in Windows Explorer) shows it to be "unformatted," and it'd be just your luck to have some helpful soul click "Yes" in response to the question about formatting it.

Cheers...